Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 108

DCC is overseeing the cleanup of former
DEW Line sites—such as this one in
Nunavut in 2006—to ensure the proper
disposal of contaminants ranging from
polychlorinated biphenyls to waste oil and
diesel fuel.
Sandstone renewal…
Calgary, early 1990s—Fred Zmetana
After a devastating fire ripped through the wooden
buildings of downtown Calgary in 1886, the town coun-
cil passed a new law ensuring that all large buildings
in the city centre would be constructed of sandstone,
which was easily available locally.
We had a major project on the Mewata Armoury in
Calgary, on its exterior sandstone—a lot of it was falling
apart. I went to Toronto to a University of New Brunswick
course on masonry specifically for the restoration of
sandstone—so I was ready to tackle that big job. A lot
of the sandstone had to be replaced, but the job went
very well.
Fred Zmetana retired in Calgary in 1992.
98
Project: DEW Line Cleanup
When the North Warning System replaced the DEW Line,
many of the DEW Line sites were no longer needed—
and although the Line was officially closed in 1993, its
sites and their hazards remained. One study, for example,
reported that more than 30 tons of polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) had been brought into the Arctic for
construction and maintenance at the 63 sites in Alaska,
Canada and Greenland. A 1985 evaluation of sites
abandoned in the early 1960s revealed the presence of
waste oil, aviation and diesel fuel, capacitors and trans-
formers containing PCBs, solvents, chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) and lindane. Some 5,000 litres of PCBs were
removed from those sites at that time.
When the stations had been established, the conse-
quences of contamination were either unknown or not
fully understood. Wastes and surplus material were
either buried in pits on land or left out on the ice to sink
into the sea during seasonal thaws. When it came to
BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA